Monday, 30 April 2012

Well today I think I might have gone a little overboard on the buttons. I decided that I'd try to do some "jubilee" themed ones, then kind of went a little bit nuts from there! This evening I made a start on another "slinky" bracelet that someone recently commissioned, pics to follow hopefully. Other than that I've just sat here and listened to the howling wind and pounding rain - fingers crossed the roof holds!!

Saturday, 28 April 2012

I guess technically it's Sunday morning now, so I'm a little late with this blog. I blame this entirely on my brother dragging me out to a rock club til the wee small hours! Which after a night on the vodka with my lovely mate is probably a step too far and I will end up paying for it for about a week lol. I did however achieve something crafty today, I made a polymer clay button. And I intend making a lot more. I kind of like Fimo but never really been interested in making beads from it, but buttons - marvellous. I can never find the ones I like and get impatient trawling through shop after shop so from now on I shall make my own. I might even make some to sell once I get the hang of the damn canes! Anyhow that's it for now, I is very tired and will probably feel much worse in a few hours - night/morning all!

Friday, 27 April 2012

Get me being all sensible - off over to a friends tonight to hit the vodka and celebrate the first official sale on Folksy http://folksy.com/shops/2CraftyBirds - twas a small, but very welcome one! Figured if I post now, then my usual tendency to talk absolute drivel (ok worse absolute drivel) when slightly merry will be headed off! So today I posted out my first sale, must put my postage costs up and then proceeded to cut out a pattern for a clutch bag. The cutting out went ok, the sewing however was a disaster, ended up sewing the wrong end twice in half hour and haven't even attempted to fit the wadding yet. I did however managed to put in a magnetic snap, so I'm proud of that if nothing else lol. Whether I'll be able to complete the bag tomorrow (the vodka may just halt that) is another thing.......

Thursday, 26 April 2012

So.....today I did some work! Not much but at least I got some done. The back of my mind is shrieking "the show is 3 weeks away, work damn you!" but the front of my mind is thinking "hmmm, I think I'll just pop on the laptop for a minute". The trials and tribulations of my little sisters loom project continued today as she threaded her loose ends through.......kind of. Trying to teach someone loom work and then have a completed piece in 3 days is really not a good thing, still we eventually finished about 9.30 this evening, it's going in tomorrow so hopefully that will be the end of that! I found myself wondering about bead embroidery today, I love seed bead weaving as it is, so it might be something I have a closer look at, maybe try out a cuff bracelet, I've been fiddling around with a design idea on publisher so who knows.....I really wish I could draw at times like this, I have so many ideas going around my head but no way of getting them graphically down on paper :-( Tomorrow I shall be attempting a clutch bag, I've got some gorgeous hot pink fabric and some silver lining fabric, so I'm thinking it's going to be pretty stunning, bit trial and error as I've not made one before, but watch this space as they say, maybe a pic on here tomorrow. Right that's it, time for bed or I'll be fit for nothing tomorrow (no change there then!). Night, night.

Wednesday, 25 April 2012

Ok, I admit it - I am not Wonder Woman. I cannot survive on less than 6 hours sleep and I cannot keep the house clean, make for a show and a party, supervise two teenage boys and two exceptionally badly behaved springer spaniels! So for one night only I am having the night off! Kind of. Nothing of any crafty note to post today as it consisted mainly of cleaning like a demon, trying to stop Harri the monster spaniel from eating the Jcloths, tea towels and sponges and a long hot soak in the bath. Tomorrow is, as they say, another day.......

Tuesday, 24 April 2012

Well what a strange day, did my usual, went to bed exhausted, head hit the pillow, brain went into over-drive! Consequently got up later than I planned lol Went to my usual bead supplier to help Crafty Bird No.2 to choose some printed ribbon to use on her new range, LindiBears, exclusive, one of a kind mohair teddy bears. Bought some beads for my lil sister to use for her jewellery project, which in true Dozy Rosie fashion she left until the last minute, i.e. it has to be completed by Friday!!! So dragged out the loom, gave a lightning quick tutorial to her and then left her to it lol. Finally I've spent the evening chasing one of the lunatic spaniels around the house as he steals everything in sight, so far tonight it's been the tv remote, cap of a coke bottle, a piece of hematite, 3 crystals and my shoe, he nearly had my iphone but lucky for him he thought better of it! In between legging it round after the four legged fiend I've been trying to redesign my business logo, stupid folksy however give a really awkward size, so something that should only take an hour or so has taken me about 5! I'm still not completely happy with it, but it's the best it's going to get for folksy I think. Can't decide whether to bead or sew a new handbag tomorrow, think I'll see how the brain fares in the morning :-). Night all!

Monday, 23 April 2012

Today is one of the days where I seem to be here, there n everywhere yet have accomplished very little! I've been manically trying to find my way around Google+ - don't even go there, setting up a shop on Etsy - nothing listed but hey I have a shop, trying to find customised woven sew in labels - took me an hour but got there eventually and dealing with the trauma of a doomed teenage love affair. Have I actually made anything? 'Ave I eck!! Oh and I've partially made a website, but very half heartedly lol. I really must get some work done but somehow I think it's more likely to be EastEnders, catch up on The Voice n bed :-)

One thing that I have accomplished, albeit in the wee small hours is a handbag, I only started sewing 3 weeks ago so I'm very pleased with this, still a few niggles to iron out but all in all a tidy effort.

Saturday, 21 April 2012

Sadly not a beady day today, but the good news is that I've been able to move back into my bead room after the flat roof incident last week! Briefly, at midnight last week I found myself having to wake up two very disgruntled teenagers to frantically move everything from the bead room into the sewing room as it was raining inside! We now have a temporary roof so thankfully I could move back in there today and also left me no excuse not to actually clean it and sort it out, so it's now looking all neat and tidy again (it will NOT last). Now it's a case of cleaning out the sewing room and getting some order into it now I have the space back.

Hoping to go through the folksy shop tonight (http://folksy.com/shops/2CraftyBirds) and reorganise it a little and take a close look at the postage options, pricing is difficult enough but working out postage for each item is a nightmare! So I'm thinking that what I'll do is send anything under a tenner 1st class post and anything over that 2nd class recorded delivery, as for international deliveries that's even more of a nightmare, hopefully it will all fall into place eventually lol.

Kids are back in college next week so the plan is to get the routine back and work like hell ready for our big craft show at the end of May. It always seems like I have loads of time to get things done and then I realise that actually no I don't! Nose to the grindstone from Monday! Be nice to get back amongst my sparkly things.......

Friday, 20 April 2012

Well this is my first attempt at blogging, but given that I was no good at keeping a diary, there's no guarantee I'll be any better at this! So for now I'll just introduce myself and 2 Crafty Birds in general.

So, 2 Crafty Birds are essentially a mother and daughter collaboration, one of whom has been sewing and crafting for a long time and one who's relatively new to it. I started doing strung jewellery about 16 months ago and discovered I had a bit of a flair for it. I've now moved away from stringing so much and now turn my hand to seed bead weaving, the smaller the bead the better! I've also just started sewing, making luscious home furnishings and handbags (this from the girl who swore she'd never touch a sewing machine!). My mum is a self-confessed teddy bear addict and so she provides the handmade, one of a kind teddy bears that you can find in our folksy shop http://folksy.com/shops/2CraftyBirds - I introduced her recently to the joys of polymer clay and she's now busy making one of a kind bear figurines as well - I get the wonderful job of photographing them all!

Not sure where this blog will take us, I suspect it will be a mix of the crafting we do, coupled with anecdotes about the utterly insane springer spaniels I live with, one of whom has a nasty habit of hoovering up any dropped beads including Swarovski Crystals!!

So that's it for today, hopefully I'll remember to post again tomorrow, but let me ease in gently folks lol